


Meet me Amongst the Sylleblossoms

by stellacanta



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Afterlife, M/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-29
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-02-09 13:25:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18638989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellacanta/pseuds/stellacanta
Summary: It would have been easier if Cor hated him, hated him the way that Nyx hated him. If, like Nyx, he had screamed at him when he saw him. Demanded to know why he, he of all people, was here in this blasted afterlife. The afterlife that only the most deserving could enter.Cor didn’t hate him, though. Not in the way that Nyx hated him, and that was the most difficult thing he had to contend with.(He wasn’t hiding from Cor, not really. Titus just never happened to be in the same place as him. He wouldn’t call that hiding.)





	Meet me Amongst the Sylleblossoms

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [My Heart Bleeds My Love For You](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18548263) by [stellacanta](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellacanta/pseuds/stellacanta). 



> Major character death warning is because they're all ... dead.  
> Spoilers for the kingsglaive movie.  
> Also there's a bit of one-sided Nyx/Drautos in this one, but I don't know if it's noticeable.

“Why are you here?”

Titus Drautos could only stare as Nyx’s face, contorted in anger, came into view. He was falling before he knew it, and pain blossomed from his cheek as Nyx’s fist made contact. “You don’t deserve to be here, you son of a bitch. You should be burning in whatever Six ordained hell they have for assholes like you!” Titus stared at Nyx in confusion. He had no answers to the man’s questions. He didn’t even know where ‘here’ was, only that there was a distinct lack of burning and pain and Nyx was here. Why was Nyx here? “You-“ He watched as Nyx’s eyes filled up with tears. “-Crowe’s not even here so why are _you_ here?! Why do you deserve a second chance?! It’s not fair!”

Nyx fell against him and he could only hold the man as Nyx cried into his arms. The breeze was cool against his cheeks and spring-like in its pleasantness. The grass was cloud soft and he felt like he was floating despite resting against solid rock and dirt. He closed his eyes and willed himself to wake up from this dream his mind must have created for him.

Titus didn’t wake up. It was only later when Nyx had calmed down that he learned about the Galahdian legend of an in-between plane where the dead and the to-be-born came from. A waiting area for the dead to be born again. It was then that he understood Nyx’s grief. The man couldn’t find his friends, good men and women that Titus knew of, and yet, he was there. He who had architected Insomnia’s downfall.  Titus had given Nyx a moment before shooting his former subordinate a wry smile and standing up.

Forests enveloped him when he had taken no more than ten steps and he wandered deeper within its reaches, willing them to take him away from everyone and everything.

He didn’t stop until he reached a secluded clearing in the heart of the forest. Sunlight filtered in from the canopy above and a few sylleblossoms bobbed and weaved in the gentle breeze. Sylleblossoms huh? A soft grin spread across Titus’ face as he sat down next to the indigo blue flowers. This seemed a good spot as any to hide.

…

Time had no meaning in this place, neither did day or night. The scenery seemed to shift to his expectations and desires. One moment he was in a forest at day, and another he was in a tundra at nightfall. The stars and moon shining brightly above him. He didn’t feel cold, or pain. Only a sense of warmth and serenity that never seemed to go away. (No matter how much he told himself it was wrong of him to feel these things. He didn’t deserve warmth and serenity. He deserved pain, he deserved fire, he deserved a despair that would never go away for all the people he had betrayed and the things he had done. He deserved-)

Nyx sought him out. It was surprising the former glaive would seek out his superior. It was even more surprising that Nyx wanted to talk to him. Wanted to find out why he had done the things he did. Titus never had an answer for him. All the answers and reasons he had seemed meaningless in the face of everything that had happened.

“Why did you join with the Nifs in the first place, weren’t they responsible for burning down your home?” No answer.

“Did it make you happy? When the king was dead by your hand?” No response, and Nyx had shouted at him, growing increasingly distraught, while he sat on the rock emotionlessly. Nyx had finally left in disgust after that one.

“Did you regret it- any of it?” Nyx finally asked one day as they were sitting on a grassy cliff overlooking the sea as the sun slid slowly beneath the waves.

The scene reminded Titus of Cavaugh. He closed his eyes. “Would it change anything if I did?” He opened his eyes when Nyx looked ready to argue the point. Titus sighed and looked at him with tired eyes. “Ulric, what’s done has been done. Whether I regret or don’t regret things won’t change them. Your friends still died. Insomnia still fell. Nothing changes.” He pushed himself up and walked along the edge of the cliff, to where he could see the woods beckon. “Forget about me, Ulric. Or remember me as that bastard that caused everything. I don’t care anymore.”

“But captain, it _does_ matter.”

He ignored Nyx’s words and his calls for him to come back. He fell asleep in a clearing deep in the forest and woke with his fingers curled around a handful of bleeding hearts. He stared at them, wondering how they got here, and what they meant. Titus got the answer to the latter when Nyx found him later and said Cor was looking for him. He clenched his hands around the pink blossoms and nodded when Nyx rose and left, his message delivered.

…

Titus wasn’t avoiding Cor. No matter how much Nyx was insisting he must be in the time that passed. “The guy just wants to talk to you, captain.” Nyx said as they sat by a babbling brook that wove through a thick forest. “The least you could do is hear him out.”

“I know what he’s going to say Ulric,” he said to Nyx with a sigh. “There’s no reason for us to meet.”

“You sure about that?” Nyx had one eyebrow raised and was half turned towards him to search his eyes for- something. “I really think he just wants to talk to you, not to scream at you or anything.” He grunted and didn’t say anything. Nyx ended up leaving a few minutes later.

“You know it’s rude to stand a guy up on a date like that.” He was on the cliff above the sea again, the sun rising from the horizon this time, and looked at Nyx in confusion when the younger man sat down next to him. “Cor and I were talking and he mentioned that you wanted to take him out somewhere-“ Nyx turned to look at him in that moment and noticed the vine of bleeding hearts he was turning in his hands. “-that’s a pretty flower.” Titus watched as Nyx’s face brightened like the sun that was rising in the distance. “What’s it called? Never seen anything like it before.”

“It’s a bleeding heart.”

“A bleeding heart?” Nyx’s expression fell somewhat. “That’s a pretty depressing name for something so pretty isn’t it?” Nyx’s hand reached for the vine and Titus ignored how their fingers touched when he handed it to Nyx. (How Nyx seemed to hesitate a bit before grabbing ahold of the vine.)

Titus watched as Nyx held it gently in his hands and admired the individual flowers and their petals. He shrugged. “It’s named after the shape.” He leaned over and traced the outline of the petals emphasize his words. “See this outer part looks like a heart and this-“ He traced a loose outline around the droplet-shaped petals on the bottom. “-this bit looks like it’s coming out of the heart. When the bud hasn’t opened yet, it’s red and looks like it’s bleeding.”

“Oh.” Nyx leaned back into him and held the flowers up to the light. There was a brief pause before he spoke again. “Bleeding Heart. Heart.” He looked up at Titus. “Is that why you said it was obvious who the flowers were for?”

Titus left then. Nyx didn’t call after him this time.

Much later, he came across Nyx and Cor in a field of sylleblossoms that he could see just beyond the tree line. Nyx was laying on his side and Cor was sitting cross-legged besides him. Nyx said something that made Cor laugh, and, with a mock frown that was barely visible from this angle, Nyx grabbed a few flowers and threw it at Cor. The action just made the man laugh harder and he looked away when the laughter faded away as Nyx shoved Cor into the ground and rolled smoothly over him.

The next time Titus awoke it was to a patch of bleeding hearts growing around him. He pushed himself up in a panic when his waking vision was filled with their gentle pink petals bobbing in the breeze. An unknown emotion gripped him as he traced his fingers along the curve of one flower before he hastily left with a shiver. The sight of them filled him with a sense of foreboding and he didn’t want to know what they could mean.

He didn’t see Cor come across the patch not a few minutes later. He didn’t see the soft expression on Cor’s face as he crouched down and gathered a few vines filled with flowers. He didn’t see Cor sit down in the patch of grass devoid of flowers and place a hand down in its center as if he could draw warmth from it. (He couldn’t, there was none to be drawn. The grass was as cool as the grass anywhere else.)

…

It all came to a head when Nyx leaned against him one day, his head resting on his shoulder. “You should talk to Cor, captain.” Titus waited for Nyx to continue, but the man didn’t. He watched as Nyx stared across the grassy meadow they were sitting in. A grassy meadow eerily devoid of any lifeforms besides them.

He sighed. “You sure about that? It’s been a while, surely-“

“-he would have forgotten about your promise to visit Tenebrae with him after the war was over?” There was a bitter tone to Nyx’s words, one that caused him to shut up and turn toward his former subordinate. “Well, the war’s over, we’re all dead, and he’s still holding you to that promise, _Captain Drautos_.” Pure venom dripped from Nyx’s voice as he said his title and Titus forced himself to look away.

“I thought he was happier with you.” A pause. “He looked happier with you.”

There was a moment before Nyx spoke again. “Sir? You are an _idiot_.” Nyx lifted his head from Titus’ shoulder and placed one hand on his cheek to turn his face toward his. “Do you know how lucky you are?” His former subordinate’s eyes were as hard as steel as he spoke. “Do you know what people would give for a second chance? A chance to undo all the mistakes that they’ve made?” Nyx’s hardened expression softened somewhat as he looked into Titus’ face for something he could not name. (He tried not to think about how warm Nyx’s hand felt on his face.) “Captain you’ve been given a _gift_ , and I don’t know _why_ the Astrals thought you were worthy for it, but you have been given it nonetheless.” Titus gulped as he felt Nyx’s thumb rub against his cheekbone and the other man’s voice drop in pitch. “Cor is still hung up about you, you know. Doesn’t matter how happy he looks with me; he still wants you.” Nyx tilted his head to the side and his eyes flickered down from his eyes to his lips. “So damn lucky and all you can do is feel sorry for your good fortune.”

Titus removed Nyx’s hand from his cheek and leaned away when it looked like Nyx was about to do something stupid. “I’ll- I’ll go talk to him,” he said as he stood up rapidly. Nyx lost his balance and just managed to catch himself with his hands. Titus looked away when Nyx looked up at him with a baffled look on his face. “I’ll go talk to Cor, take him to see the sylleblossoms.” He shrugged. “Allow him to move on, so he doesn’t have to keep onto that stupid promise.”

“Oh, yeah.” Nyx blinked up at him. “You go do that.”

Titus tried to pretend that he couldn’t feel Nyx’s eyes following him until he finally faded from view.

…

He found Cor in the biggest field of sylleblossoms he had ever had the chance to see. The indigo blue flowers endlessly to the horizon and Cor Leonis, marshal of the crownsguard, was sitting in the one patch of grass free of them. Titus grunted as he sat down. “Would have thought you’d sick of them by now,” he said without preamble as Cor looked towards him, a wry grin on his smile. “Nyx told me you still wanted to see them with me. Not sure why, though.”

Cor inclined his head and plucked one of the indigo blossoms from the ground. “You know I got made head of the kingsglaive when the endless night came.” He held up the flower to his eyes and squinted a bit at it. “Only man to have been the head of both.”

“They did huh?” Cor only nodded in response. Titus looked away and tried not to crush any flowers as he placed his hands on either side of him. “A fine choice.” He sighed heavily. “Certainly, better than the last guy they choose for the job.” Cor shot him a sharp glance and waited for him to continue. “What do you want, Cor? I get the feeling that it isn’t just to watch sylleblossoms with me.”

“What?” Cor raised an eyebrow. “You promise to take me to Tenebrae when everything’s over so we can go flower watching of all things and now that we’re dead the offer is null and void?”

“The offer was contingent on us actually being alive enough to go to Tenebrae, you know,” he shot back. “Can’t exactly go to Tenebrae when we’re dead.”

“I- I just can’t-“ Cor cut himself off and shook his head. Titus grunted when he felt the other man lean against him. “Is this what it looked like? The place you were talking about?”

Titus squinted into the distance. “I think so? This looks like an endless field of sylleblossoms to me.” He looked towards Cor. “I’m sure the place I planned on taking you was supposed to be an endless field of sylleblossoms outside of Tenebrae.”

Cor hummed and held up a vine of bleeding hearts. Titus felt his blood freeze in his veins. “Recognize these?” Cor continued speaking when he didn’t respond. “Apparently, they’re called bleeding hearts, or so I’ve been informed by Nyx. I found a bunch of these shoved in the trash in the men’s bathroom by our shared office the day we were talking about going to Tenebrae. I thought it was weird that there were so many exotic flowers just shoved in the trash like that, thought someone might have gotten stood up but-“ He grinned ruefully towards Titus. “-You know, I started coughing up sylleblossoms a few days after we were talking about going to Tenebrae to see them.” Titus shook his head as he slowly began to realize what was happening. “I stopped coughing them up when I didn’t hear from you after Insomnia fell, and, well, I met Libertus later on-“

“-I’m not a good person Cor,” Titus said suddenly, looking away from the other man. “Go be happy with Nyx, he deserves your regard far more than I do.” Cor yanked him down when he moved to stand up.

“Now, just hold on a second, Titus. I never said you were a good man.” Cor peered into his eyes. “I didn’t call you here just to have you run away from me, a second later.” He opened his mouth and shut it a moment later before he continued with an annoyed huff. “You know, I was so angry at you when I found out. I thought of Clarus as an older brother so to find out _you_ were the one who directly lead to his death-“

“-I’m not asking for your forgiveness, Cor,” He replied through gritted teeth. “I’m not a good person, I don’t deserve your-“

“-and I’m not giving it to you!” Cor’s hands wrapped tighter around Titus’ wrists when he tried to tug them away. “Quit moving, already, I’m try to talk to you.” Titus stopped moving to stare at him blankly. He breathed a sigh of relief. “Good, now I was saying, you’re not a good person Titus. But you’re a man and we all made bad decisions. Yours just- lead to some terrible consequences.” Cor grimaced. “Look, I’m not saying that I forgive you, but I’m saying that- that I understand what you must have gone through. You were angry and hurt and just wanted to lash out and-“

“-and you weren’t supposed to find out my feelings for you Cor, much less return them.” Cor gaped at him, eyes wide with shock. Titus squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath to calm himself. “Cor, I don’t deserve this. Any of this-“

“-now you listen here-“

“-Regis should be here instead of me. Clarus should be here instead of me. Heck, Nyx couldn’t find Crowe and _she_ deserves this more than I do-“

“-Titus, will you-“

“-I’m a bad person, Cor. I don’t deserve a second chance at life.” He took a shaky breath and opened his eyes. “Cor, just, forget me. Forget I even existed and that I made that damn promise to see the sylleblossoms with you. The Astrals must have made a mistake, I should be tortured the rest of eternity for what I have done, I-“

Cor lunged at Titus and their lips connected. The kiss was rough and biting. Cor slipped his tongue into Titus’ mouth when he opened it to speak. “Shut up,” Cor murmured against his lips. “Just-“ He sucked on his lower lip and pushed him roughly to the ground. “You do deserve this,” Cor whispered against his neck when he finally pulled away to press hot kisses against his neck. “You deserve a second chance, Titus. Love, happiness, all of it, you do deserve it.”

He was silenced with a kiss when he tried to argue, Cor swallowing all his arguments as his shirt was roughly shoved up to his armpits.

Titus turned his head when Cor lavished hot, wet kisses to his body. He bit his lip to keep the moans from pouring out his mouth. A hand entwined itself with his.

Through half-lidded eyes he could just catch sight of a vine of bleeding hearts resting against the sylleblossoms before his head was turned and all he could see was Cor.  

Cor, above him with a tender look in his eyes. Cor, his mouth open and gaze focused on him intensely like he was the most precious thing in the world. Cor.


End file.
